Impressions 



there are spiders and spiders and it is always 

 easy to gather a dozen or more that vary 

 greatly in size, shape and color. They are 

 everywhere, too, and not an unknown factor 

 of a midwinter day. Some even live in the 

 water, carrying a supply of air to their webby 

 nests beneath the surface. How easy to specu- 

 late how all this came about and yet, not yet are 

 we advanced to the point of positive knowledge. 

 But above all these dreary details stands out 

 the one great fact that among the least conspic- 

 uous of objects in Nature there often lies a 

 wealth of beauty, wholly unsuspected. It is 

 not ' ' how much more beauty God has made than 

 human eyes can see," as Ruskin puts it, but 

 how much more than we are willing to take the 

 trouble to see. 



Cobwebs! Mention them and we have a 

 vague impression of dust-accumulating threads, 

 if they be in a house, or, if out of doors, they 

 are but evidence that horrid spiders are about. 

 But down on your knees and examine one more 

 closely than ever before and then cease to brag 

 of human skill in lace-making. Man is but an 

 imitator and often a clumsy one at that. It 



39 



